| |
|
The Musselman cemetery
Is tucked under the cliff,
Draped in broad-leafed vines
And overhanging mimosas
Each grave crowned by
A crescent moon and a star
In cement, fresh flowers
Scattered in cracked vases.
The mosque sits forgotten
Above the sea in this Chinese
Buddhist-Catholic city
Of billowing incense, smoke
Rising from temple courtyards,
Lost among tropical foliage
Across the world from dry
Desert stone, far from home.
© by Emily Strauss.
Used with the author's permission.
|
.jpg)
Emily Strauss has an M.A. in English, but is self-taught in poetry, which she has written since college. More than 550 of her poems appear in a wide variety of online venues and in anthologies, in the U.S. and abroad. The natural world of the American West is Emily’s usual framework; she also considers the narratives of people and places around her. Emily is a retired teacher and lives in Oregon with a small dog and a black cat.
|
|
ems:
Thank you for your responses. I lived in Macao for three years and only found this overgrown tiny cemetery by wandering a lot. I always wondered how Moslem sailors ended up there.
Posted 03/09/2012 12:36 PM
|
Kay Sanders:
What intrigues me are those "fresh flowers scattered in cracked vases."
Posted 03/07/2012 03:19 PM
|
dotief@comcast.net:
This poem evokes an interesting loneliness and begs the question "Why are these graves and mosque here 'far from home?'" I love it when poetry makes me wonder.
Posted 03/07/2012 02:41 PM
|
Wilda Morris:
This poem makes me want to go to Macao!
Posted 03/07/2012 02:22 PM
|
|
|
|
My Cart 
